Position of Sheep in Profitable Farming 3 



vestment is so much smaller in the case of the range. 

 Large areas in different countries seem destined to 

 be always utilized for grazing chiefly by the types of 

 sheep bred primarily for wool-production. 



Combining wool and mutton. — It is as meat-pro- 

 ducers that sheep command the study of men who 

 seek fully to utilize farming lands. This does not 

 mean that wool is to be wholly disregarded in rear- 

 ing of meat-producing sheep. A very useful degree 

 of eflficiency in wool-production is entirely compatible 

 with even the maximum efficiency in producing meat. 

 Placing entire dependence upon revenues from the 

 wool of sheep maintained on farming lands, can be 

 remunerative only so long as wool is protected from 

 having to sell in markets open to the product of the 

 strictly grazing areas. Because of the wool tariff, the 

 sheep industry in America in the past has experienced 

 many fluctuations that have served to prevent con- 

 tinuous advance toward such a generally settled 

 policy as supports the horse-, cattle-, or swine-raising 

 industries. 



Lands for sheep. — It is not the purpose of the next 

 few pages to argue the desirability of keeping sheep 

 on every farm, but rather to discuss their peculiarities 

 and the features in which they differ from other 

 stock so that their usefulness may be estimated 

 fairly. No discussion as to the advantages of stock- 

 farming over grain-farming is in place. The prob- 

 lem of soil fertility allows practically all farm 



